Chapter Text
Alec hates clubs. They were loud, packed with far too many people, and far too close to him. Not to mention all the drunk or tipsy people trying to start fights or the underage kids trying to pass off clearly fake IDs. It never seemed worth it to him.
However, Jace had gotten them this job for the weekend. He had burst into their apartment on Monday and shoved papers and a pen in Alec’s hands to sign. Alec had learned to trust Jace with contracts and signed the paper without really reading it.
Jace had ripped the paper out from under the pen when Alec had finished and run from the apartment. Staring out the window, Alec had seen him jogging down the street and out of sight.
Only when he returned an hour later, Alec asked what that was all about, and Jace gave him the details.
There was an event happening at a bar, and Jace had been in the right place at the right time. Walking home from Clary's studio, the guys originally hired had bailed, and Jace had heard the pay and sprinted to get the contract. Alec did not enjoy the role of a bouncer, but he did have to admit that when Jace had told him the sum they would get, Alec had demanded to see the number in black and white.
So here he was, escorting drunks out and arguing with kids who thought their IDs looked real.
What's worse is that he hadn't seen Jace since they had gotten here. The head of security had pointed Jace and several others to work inside, while the rest were assigned to the perimeter or doors. The amount of security suggested that the people coming were of enough status to warrant the guest list that would be in place tomorrow night.
The music blaring out from inside had Alec glad that he hadn’t been assigned there, instead getting to enjoy a bit of the cool night air. He was standing by the door while another guy checked IDs and told people that the club was full for the moment. Alec really hated this part of a bouncer's job. Just standing here telling people to wait until the club is less full, and having to hear their small talk or gossip while they wait. Admittedly, sometimes Alec would get invested in a story he heard, but only because there was absolutely nothing else to do for hours at a time. He pulled at the collar of his too high, too warm polo neck. He kind of wished Jace had been posted at the door with him, at least then he’d have some comfortable company.
Soon enough, some other security people came to switch out with them, pointing Alec to go work inside. He hated Jace for finding this job, and hated himself for not being able to turn down the pay.
He slipped inside and kept to the wall. The Pandemonium was a popular club even when there weren’t events. The large building was taken up mostly by the dance floor, bar, and a few seating areas, the raised seating area reserved for VIPs, and a couple of private rooms around the back. Alec kept moving, slipping past dancers and friend circles. He moved up toward the raised seating area, seeing a small edge of the balcony that would give him a good view of the club.
He could see Jace on the other side of the room, talking to one of the security guys. He frowned a moment, then nodded, turning away and looking over the club again. He must have seen Alec because he pulled out his phone, and Alec felt his buzz with a text in his pocket.
(Jace 00:16)
We gotta stay later than the club closes, boss lady wants to brief everyone on the plan for tmw night events
(Jace 00:17)
Also be on look out for party crashers, apparently some ppl are around dealing stuff. Owner doesn't want that
Alec had figured as much. He looked over at Jace and gave him a thumbs up before Jace ducked down into the crowd and around a corner. Alec looked back over the crowd and toward the bar. He could feel the music thumping in his chest and hated not being able to rely on his hearing. His eyesight wasn't much better with all the flashing lights.
+++
The lights flashed, and the sea of bodies thrummed to the beat. Magnus enjoyed watching people. He enjoyed observing how people acted when they thought no one was looking or when they were trying to get people to look.
He leaned back in his seat, and one of the ladies to his left reached over and handed him a drink. He took a sip, allowing the sweetness to flood his mouth and warm his throat. He had arrived an hour ago, and it was only his second drink of the evening. He had no plans to drink excessively this weekend; tomorrow would be his chance to get a nice deal on a building not too far from here. He already owned another, smaller building that he lived in, but there was never a bad time to expand.
He looked out over the dance floor again, spotting a few vampires and seelies in the mix of mundanes. He smiled, the downworld wasn't uncommon to see anymore, but they certainly were something one had to look for. He let his fingers run over the back of the couch he sat against, magic sparking into the fabric and running out through his club. There were a lot more downworlders tonight than he had thought. Seelies, vampires, one or two werewolves…
And four angel-bloods.
Now that was new. He paused, four nephilim in his club on the same night was not a coincidence he was willing to dismiss. He let his magic brush outward again, just to be sure.
Four. Distinct and unmistakable.
The Clave had recalled the Shadowhunters almost 20 years ago, opting to keep them mostly hidden, or at a controllable distance, Magnus often thought. The downworld had similarly taken to governing itself with few interventions. The unspoken rules meant everyone got along perfectly well.
The shadowhunters who had remained in New York were careful. They did not come to places like this.
Which meant either there was already trouble in his club, or trouble was coming. Neither option appealed to him.
Magnus filed the number away and reached for another drink. He would find them. His eyes moved over the club. While his magic could tell him there were nephilim, no spell he cast would be able to tell him who it was. His best bet was going to be catching a glimpse of a rune.
He called over his head of security, a mundane woman he quite admired. "Katherine! Good to see you, my dear." Magnus figured he could start off with his normal flair, make it seem not all that urgent.
"There are a few people I need you to keep an eye out for me. Could be some trouble-causers here to deal with in my club; neither of us wants that this weekend. If you see anyone with black symbols tattooed, or circle tattoos on their neck, just let me know, would you?"
Katherine nodded and motioned to one of her guys, speaking briefly into his ear before he went down and into the crowd.
He knew she wouldn't be able to see them, not if they had their glamours up, but he knew she had some downworlders on her team that would.
An hour or so passed, and Magnus had kept his eyes scanning the crowd the whole time. A few of the people sharing his couch were starting to give him funny looks when he turned down drink after drink, focusing on nothing but continuously looking around the club.
Getting fed up with their insistence that he have another drink, Magnus let the girl next to him bring a drink up to his mouth. He slipped it through the straw, eyes staying on the dance floor.
That's when he saw it, two men standing not too far away. The girl moved the drink away and put it on the table nearby.
The men were wearing suits, no security badges, and sunglasses covered their eyes. Peeking out from under their button-up shirts was a bright red arch of a circle.
Got you.
Magnus uncrossed his legs and stood up from where he had been situated on his couch. Within an instant, he was off the platform and in front of them. When they noticed his presence, they stood taller, the one fixing his suit.
"Circle members aren't welcome in my club," Magnus stated, glaring between the two of them. "No worries, warlock. It's all ancient history." The blond one shrugged, and Magnus couldn't help the small raise of his eyebrows.
"Really?" He let his glamour fade away, cat eyes glowing in the dark of the nightclub. "To me, it was like the blink of an eye."
The larger of the men made a lunge forward at him. Magnus moved to catch him in his magic, but before he could, a hand caught the man and pushed him back against the pillar.
Magnus saw a badge move backward as the person stood behind him again. "What seems to be the problem?" A man's voice, Magnus turned as he saw blonde hair. One of the last-minute security guards he had hired.
"No problem, we were just leaving." The circle member grabbed his friend, whose back was still against the pillar, and pushed him away. Magnus glared at them as they moved into the crowd. He had a feeling they weren't going to be leaving without some extra prompting. He turned to look at the man, glamour back up. "Thank you, make sure they leave the club and can't get back in, will you?" The man nodded.
"Look out!" a voice came from around them. A glass flew between Magnus and the blond man, smashing not too far away. Magnus turned and saw the larger of the two circle members with glass cuts over his face and bleeding. Then he felt the blond move away from him, and the man was on the ground. The security guard he had been talking to pressed the circle members’ arms behind his back, while another brushed past Magnus, probably being the one having thrown the glass.
Other security came down and helped grab the man, pushing him out of the partition that had formed from the surrounding crowd. The blond one and the one who had thrown the glass stood up.
In four hundred years, Magnus had collected many things. Buildings, art, memories, regrets. He had not expected to add 'the face of a security guard in the Pandemonium' to that list. And yet.
The man who had thrown the glass was tall, devastatingly so, with dark hair and the kind of stillness that most people spend their whole lives pretending to have. His blazer was one all the security guards had, but Magnus noticed the polo neck underneath it. The way the collar sat high against his jaw, sleeves buttoned down to the wrist. Fully covered, not an inch of skin below the neck was visible. It was odd for a club this warm.
The thought left his head as quickly as it came, distracted by how the shirt clung to the very fit body beneath. He may have been showing no skin, but damn that shirt hid very little.
"You alright? I didn't hit you two, did I?"
His voice was low, directed at his colleague, entirely unbothered by the chaos that had just unfolded around him.
Magnus, who had not been rendered speechless in at least a century, opened his mouth and said nothing. Wide-eyed at his current lack of speaking abilities, he then said the first thing that came to him.
"Who are you?"
The words left him, measured and unhurried, before he had quite decided to say them. The dark-haired man stilled for just a fraction of a second, or perhaps Magnus had imagined it, before the blond one motioned to him, and they disappeared into the crowd after the security escorting the circle member out.
Magnus stood there bewildered for a moment. That must have been the other last-minute hire; he would have remembered seeing him otherwise. He blinked a few times and turned to go back to the platform.
Two accounted for. He watched with a tight jaw as the security hauled the man out, not forgetting that somewhere in the crowd, there were still two more.
Magnus shook his head and took a sip of the offered drink. He dismissed Katherine when she came to check on him and settled back against the couch. Between drinks and conversation, his eyes kept drifting back to where the crowd had closed behind the security.
Well, he was not going to pretend that it was entirely about the nephilim. He can have a circle member problem and an attractive security guard at the same time.
A head of blond hair slipped back through the crowd below, a tall dark figure following close behind, and Magnus was already up and moving along the balcony railing - because if that man was going to be in his club all evening, the least Magnus could do was enjoy the view.
+++
Alec was fed up. This guy was proving to be more trouble than it was worth. When they tossed him out, he just came straight back at the security. He was not drunk as far as Alec could tell, but the security obviously thought he was. Eventually, another man came over and tugged the guy away. Alec and Jace slipped back inside, Jace making a circle motion over his neck. Alec knew what he meant, but chose to ignore it for now; it must have just been a coincidence.
Circling the club again, he looked up to the VIP platform. Jace had told him the guy he had thrown the glass past had been the owner of the club, and he intended to go apologize for the said incident. Even if the throw had been necessary.
He parted from Jace and pushed around the crowd toward the stairs, focused on navigating past the cluster of people at the base of the platform. He was halfway into his ascent before he looked up.
Magnus Bane was already staring at him from the top of the stairs. Alec very nearly missed the next step.
Alec knew of Magnus Bane; he didn't know that he had owned this club, but he was aware of one of the most powerful warlocks in New York. However, Alec had only ever seen old images of the man, nothing like what was in front of him now.
The eyeliner was the first thing Alec noticed, then the glitter that he had all over his face catching the lights. Alec looked downward, intending to focus back on the stairs he was climbing, but Magnus Bane's outfit made that remarkably difficult.
He wore a blazer jacket, with nothing else covering his chest other than extravagant necklaces of varying heights. The sleeves were slightly rolled back, revealing bracelets, rings, and painted nails. He reached the top of the stairs and very firmly reminded himself that he was here to apologize.
Whatever stuck-up, old warlock Alec had been expecting, Magnus Bane was not him.